Seattle City Councilmember Tammy J. Morales (District 2 – Yesler Terrace to Rainier Beach) is calling on app-based companies who are trying to repeal Seattle’s new minimum wage laws to release information justifying their fee hikes on customers.  

“It’s wrong to rush a rollback of minimum wage protections for delivery drivers without having all the information. The app-based companies trying to repeal the minimum wage, like DoorDash and Instacart, must release information justifying their fee increases before the Council moves forward. They have refused to do that,” said Councilmember Morales.  

“We should not repeal labor protections every time billion-dollar corporations hike fees on customers without justifying those fee increases. That would allow corporations to extort our political process,” Morales continued. 

The original app-based worker legislation took years of intense engagement with drivers, app-based companies, and other stakeholders to develop. It was unanimously passed by the Seattle City Council in 2022.  

Immediately after going into effect, companies like DoorDash instituted a $5 per order fee. This has reportedly resulted in fewer online orders, negatively impacting some Seattle restaurants.  

During today’s committee meeting it was announced that Mayor Harrell wants “more data from the app-based companies to justify the increased costs that customers are seeing that is driving down customer demand.” 

Council should not move forward on the legislation without that data. The law has been in effect for less than three months, and there has been no verifiable data or independent analysis done on its effectiveness. Key community stakeholders, including independent groups that represent drivers, have also not been consulted.